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Microsoft’s VS (Visual Studio) Code is a free, open source code editor that is gaining in popularity. It’s very lightweight, flexible and yet still packs some powerful features. Plus, it supports just about every major programming language, including PHP, JavaScript, C++ and a whole lot more.

You might even be surprised to learn that VS Code is also cross-platform. Not only does it work on Windows, but versions for both Linux and Mac are also available for download.

But perhaps the coolest feature of all is the massive extension marketplace. There are free extensions available to support new languages, debug your code or add a variety of other custom functionality. This enables you to customize the editing experience to better meet your needs.

Today, we’ll introduce you to some of the very best VS Code extensions out there. Let’s get started!

GitLens

While Git functionality is already built into VS Code, GitLens aims to “supercharge” the editor with even more version control goodies. It offers deeper insight into code, showing you when it was changed and who changed it. You can even compare different branches, tags and commits. Overall, this extension will make version control a more visual experience.

Beautify

Are you very particular about syntax highlighting? If so, Beautify is just the extension you need. It takes advantage of VS Code’s already existing use of Online JavaScript Beautifier, but allows you to easily make changes to its styles. This means you can set elements like indenting, line wrap and other minutiae to your heart’s content.

ESLint

JavaScript can be quite difficult to debug. But the ESLint extension for VS Code can make the process much easier. It helps by pointing out potential problems in your code before you even execute it. Better still, the extension lets you create your own linting rules.

Debugger for Chrome

For developers who’d rather troubleshoot code during runtime, Debugger for Chrome will help you get the job done. There are a number of handy features, including the ability to set breakpoints in your code, watches and a console. Plus, you can choose to run an instance of Chrome within VS Code or attach the debugger to a seperately running instance of the browser.

React Native Tools

React is among the most buzzworthy JS libraries out there – so much so that the new WordPress block editor (aka Gutenberg) is built on it. If you’re among the many who have jumped on the bandwagon, React Native Tools is a must-have extension. It adds the ability to run react-native commands and will help you debug code.

One Dark Pro

When dealing with code, it helps to have an editor that is both visually appealing and comfortable. After all, coding sessions can last for hours on end. One Dark Pro brings the popular “One Dark” theme from the Atom editor to VS Code. You get the familiarity of this iconic look with the other conveniences of Microsoft’s open source app.

Bracket Pair Colorizer 2

Bracket Pair Colorizer 2 is a simple extension, but one that can make code much easier to digest. It color codes matching brackets, allowing you to visually determine where functions begin and end. You can even pick which colors to use.

vscode-icons

Perhaps one of the most effective visual tweaks for VS Code comes from vscode-icons. It takes a rather bland file listing and adds colorful, language-specific icons to the mix. This makes it easy to tell your PHP files from HTML, for example. Plus, the added personality is a welcome addition to any workspace.

Write Code Your Way

The incredible number of available extensions for VS Code makes it a compelling choice for everyday use. You have the freedom to set things up to match the languages you use and the type of visual space you prefer.

Plus, it offers an interesting mix of both corporate and open source culture. Being backed by Microsoft would seem to ensure that VS Code will be actively developed in the future. And the open source community has created a thriving ecosystem around the software. The result for developers is getting the best of both worlds.

Over the following short screen-capture videos, Charlie Davis, a London-based illustrator, covers how to use the Pen tool and brushes to build a peaceful countryside scene. You’ll also learn how to apply masks, and how to use textures from Adobe Stock to add depth and warmth.

Davis took a mental trip to the country to evoke silence and solitude when he was asked to illustrate this scene in Photoshop CC. “This scene is about getting away from the digital noise of modern-day life,” he explains.

Once you’ve mastered the techniques in this Photoshop tutorial, you can apply them to your own artwork.

Get Adobe Creative Cloud now 01. Begin your composition with the Brush tool

After importing your initial sketch into a new Photoshop CC file, you can begin your composition, using the Brush tool (B) to draw in major elements.

Davis works on a Wacom Cintiq – his graphics tablet of choice – and the majority of his brushes were created by Kyle T Webster.

02. Add solid shapes using the Pen tool

Now, switch to Photoshop’s Pen tool (P). You need to draw simple, solid shapes to build up the most distant elements of the illustration.

03. Add midground elements

You can now use a combination of freehand drawing and the Pen tool to introduce the midground elements of your illustration.

05. Focus on the foreground

Next, turn your attention to the foreground elements, which you can colour in dark shades to enhance the composition’s sense of depth. To create the leaves of a plant, draw one leaf with the Pen tool and then duplicate it. You can rotate angles and play with size to introduce more natural-looking variations.

06. Add more plants

At this stage, return to the Brush tool (B) to freehand another plant.

07. Add highlights with colour

Draw the general shape of the foreground bird with the Pen tool (P), and make it one solid colour. In this clip, you can see how to add highlights with a lighter colour.

08. Add texture with masks

Add details to break up the flat expanse of snow in the centre of the illustration. Towards the end of this clip, Davis creates a layer named 'tone ledge' and walks through a technique you can use again and again.

Mask into a shape, then draw up against the mask to give one side a textured edge. This combination of freehand drawing with the more precise vector shapes and masks is a hallmark of the process.

09. Think about the light source

With all the elements of the illustration now in place, add long shadows that indicate the light direction and time of day. These help enhance the mood of the image.

10. Add definition

Now, return to the background. Use the Brush tool to apply shades to the mountain-sides, giving them definition.

11. Make it more organic with brushwork

To give the appearance of a sun that’s low in the sky, brush highlights onto the edges of the forms in the illustration. An added benefit is that the pixel-based brush roughens the too-perfect vector shapes, making everything feel more organic.

The best free Photoshop brushes 12. Create shadows

Add snow and shadows to a rock.

13. Add dimension

To give the foreground more dimension, you can work in a bright ray of sun hitting the rocks. This not only enhances the drama of the lighting, but it also calls attention to the bird – an important element of the composition.

14. Add warmth with Adobe Stock textures

To enhance the organic feel of the illustration, add textures from Adobe Stock using the Creative Cloud Libraries feature inside Photoshop. This clip is a fascinating look into how small details can elevate an artwork.

Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.

The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that were posted, so don’t miss out and subscribe to our newsletter and follow the site daily for all the news.

Introducing Textblock

HTML Slides Without Frameworks, Just CSS

The Best of Slack & Trello in One App

The Failed Netflix Homepage Redesign Experiment that Nobody even Noticed

The holy grail of web design used to be a three-column layout where every column had equal height. Now, the holy grail is making it so anyone can design a website or app. Visual design apps abound, one of the big names in the Mac community right now is Framer X.

Framer X isn’t staying on only the Mac platform, though. The team has big plans, and it involves more than making it easier to push pixels. They reached out to WDD to see if we wanted to get a sneak peek of what’s coming next, and since I am one of the resident app nerds, I had the pleasure of interviewing them.

WDD: Tell us about yourselves.

Framer: So Jorn and I (Koen) worked at our first company, Sofa, together in 2009. Things really took off after we won a few Apple Design Awards, when we got a call from Mark Zuckerberg. The rest is history, as they say — our company and team were acquired by Facebook in 2011, where we ended up doubling their product design team.

We spent two years there helping launch some major product features but eventually moved back to Amsterdam and co-founded Framer in 2013. It’s been both challenging and extremely rewarding to stick to our guns and build this company in the Netherlands, even raising our Series B last year.

WDD: I’m a Windows user, so I have to ask: when is Framer X coming to Windows?

Framer: It’s in the works! We have a team working hard on this and it’s part of our plan to open up Framer X to a wider audience. I can’t give you definitive dates but you can expect something in 2019. And until then, you can sign up for the waitlist here.

WDD: What inspired you to build Framer? What’s the origin story?

Framer: When we were working at Facebook, we found ourselves pitching these innovative product ideas using traditional presentation slides. It was really frustrating to try and convey responsive, interactive design ideas to board members through static imagery – it’s just counter-intuitive.

As design has evolved, so has our thinking around tooling

Unfortunately, that’s just how things were done at the time, as interactive design was still relatively new and static images were the norm. Which is why, shortly after leaving Facebook, we co-founded Framer to focus on helping everyone better express digital product ideas.

As design has evolved, so has our thinking around tooling. While Framer Classic captured a large share of the very best designers in the world, it was only accessible to a small subset of all designers, as it used code to express ideas.

So we launched a whole new product, Framer X, which opens up interactive design to everyone, regardless of coding ability and offers interfaces for everyday design tasks like wireframing, visual design and interactive work.

WDD: What other design apps most inspired your feature choices and design?

Framer: I’ve always been very inspired by Unity – especially how accessible it is. In a sense, we are building an interactive IDE for product design that anyone can use, much like Unity has done for the gaming industry.

WDD: Your software is big on sharing and centralizing libraries of design assets, and by extension, design systems. How do you, as designers, balance the benefits of design systems (consistency and speed) with the desire for experimentation most designers feel at some point?

Framer: It is definitely a tricky balance. As a company, we have a big maker culture, with a huge emphasis on shipping. A lot of of this is because we genuinely love solving hard product problems, but just as much because our community has come to expect this of us.

As we’ve grown, we’ve come to see the value of adding some structure to this process, including creating our own React-based design system, Fraction. Everyone is still very much empowered to try and test — we even have an R&D team and leave time on Fridays for more experimental projects.

WDD: Out of all the features currently on Framer X, which are you most proud of?

Framer: We’re most proud of the features that make our app so collaborative. For example, Framer X contains a built-in store where users can publish components that can do practically anything, from media players to advanced interactive controls to entire design systems.

This means that new users can instantly leverage the work of advanced users, which provides immediate value to all users and offers incredible network effects. Our community has always been at the core of our product, and the store allows us to bring that into our product in a meaningful way.

WDD: Which feature do you most wish you’d done better with on the first try?

Framer: Interactive design is always evolving, so of course our platform is as well. Framer X’s Interactive tools — Link, Page, and Scroll — have undergone the most changes, thanks in part to the feedback we got from our beta users.

Everything that used to require lines of code in Framer Classic can now be created using the canvas tools we have. I’m not sure we would do anything differently, but hindsight being 20/20, perhaps we could have done some things sooner.

WDD: You can export elements as CSS and SVG code in Framer X. Any plans to support CSS Grid for layout?

Framer: We are planning to launch a grid tool in 2019! Stay tuned.

WDD: Where do you see Framer going in 2019?

Framer: We’re going to bring Framer X to Windows and the Web to give more people access to our interactive design tool. We’ll still be focused on making it the best tool for interactive design and with that, the best place for your team to build out your design systems.

My belief is that people are way more creative than they think and with the right platform, anyone can design. So I’d love to head toward a direction where Framer X becomes accessible enough to appeal even to people who use Powerpoint.

WebGL is becoming quite popular these days as it allows us to create unique interactive graphics for the web. You might have seen the recent text distortion effects using Blotter.js or the animated WebGL lines created with the THREE.MeshLine library. Today you’ll see how to quickly create an interactive “fake” 3D effect for images with plain WebGL.

If you use Facebook, you might have seen the update of 3D photos for the news feed and VR. With special phone cameras that capture the distance between the subject in the foreground and the background, 3D photos bring scenes to life with depth and movement. We can recreate this kind of effect with any photo, some image editing and a little bit of coding.

Usually, these kind of effects would rely on either Three.js or Pixi.js, the powerful libraries that come with many useful features and simplifications when coding. Today we won’t use any libraries but go with the native WebGL API.

So let’s dig in.

Getting started

So, for this effect we’ll go with the native WebGL API. A great place to help you get started with WebGL is webglfundamentals.org. WebGL is usually being berated for its verboseness. And there is a reason for that. The foundation of all fullcreen shader effects (even if they are 2D) is some sort of plane or mesh, or so called quad, which is stretched over the whole screen. So, speaking of being verbose, while we would simply write THREE.PlaneGeometry(1,1) in three.js which creates the 1×1 plane, here is what we need in plain WebGL:

Now that we have our plane, we can apply vertex and fragment shaders to it.

Preparing the image

For our effect to work, we need to create a depth map of the image. The main principle for building a depth map is that we’ve got to separate some parts of the image depending on their Z position, i.e. being far or close, hence isolate the foreground from the background.

For that, we can open the image in Photoshop and paint gray areas over the original photo in the following way:

This image shows some mountains where you can see that the closer the objects are to the camera, the brighter the area is painted in the depth map. Let’s see in the next section why this kind of shading makes sense.

Shaders

The rendering logic is mostly happening in shaders. As described in the MDN web docs:

A shader is a program, written using the OpenGL ES Shading Language (GLSL), that takes information about the vertices that make up a shape and generates the data needed to render the pixels onto the screen: namely, the positions of the pixels and their colors. There are two shader functions run when drawing WebGL content: the vertex shader and the fragment shader.

Remember, the depth map image is black and white. For shaders, color is just a number: 1 is white and 0 is pitch black. The uv variable is a two dimensional map storing information on which pixel to show. With these two things we can use the depth information to move the pixels of the original photo a little bit.

Because the texture is black and white, we can just take the red channel (depth.r), and multiply it to the mouse position value on the screen. That means, the brighter the pixel is, the more it will move with the mouse. On the other hand, dark pixels will just stay in place. It’s so simple, yet, it results in such a nice 3D illusion of an image.

Of course, shaders are capable of doing all kinds of other crazy things, but I hope you like this small experiment of “faking” a 3D movement. Let me know what you think about it, and I hope to see your creations with this!

After months of development, New ActiveCollab, a pioneer of project management software with over a decade of experience, is finally here – the perfect start to 2019.

ActiveCollab is a project management software that serves as a central hub for team communication, collaboration, and project planning. It enables complete management of projects by breaking them down into more actionable tasks. When tasks are assigned to team members and a date with automatic reminders is set, it ensures that missed deadlines will be a thing of the past – since everyone knows exactly what they are working on and when it needs to be done. The option to track time is invaluable in dealing with clients – they will be able to see precisely how much time was spent working on their projects, and those tracked time reports can be used to issue custom invoices.

Their mission – to eliminate busywork and to help make Real Work happen.

New ActiveCollab is a product that immeasurable love and care have been poured into, with every change, tweak, upgrade, new feature and addition being the result of careful planning and communication with customers.

It is the collaborative success of dozens of people – developers, designers, marketers, customer care, etc. – each contributing their unique perspectives and special skills. Because of this, we can safely say that New ActiveCollab is not just the best-looking, most powerful version yet, but also – the most personal.

Apart from the fresh, sleek, redesigned look, there are many other substantial improvements and changes all across the board. Here is a list of the most significant ones:

A Brand New Look & Feel

In new ActiveCollab, dozens of refinements that fix and improve the design were added – making the software much smoother and more enjoyable to use. There are also several new themes to choose from.

This is much more than just a simple visual redesign – it is an evolution of ActiveCollab. A sleek, fluid tool that’s wonderful to behold and a joy to use.

Task Dependencies With Automatic Rescheduling

The biggest and most important – as well as most requested – New ActiveCollab feature. Using Task Dependencies, child tasks that are dependent on parent tasks can be set. This allows for greater control over tasks – in which order and when they will be completed, and it opens up a range of advanced management options in every step of the work process.

This addition will eliminate confusion over the exact turn in which tasks have to be finished, since they will no longer be done out of sequence. Everyone has had work experiences when the projects worked on would slow down because people couldn’t work on their own tasks until another segment was done. Automatic rescheduling means that when a parent task is moved around, their child tasks will automatically adjust their dates as well, and they also take weekends and days off into account.

Since Your Last Visit

All the projects and tasks we are involved in continue to make progress even in our absence. Which means that a lot of time catching up on everything that happened is required. This feature highlights all the comments that were made since the last time the software was visited.

Wasting time sorting new information from the old will no longer be an issue, and Project Managers will be able to devote their time to other more pressing concerns, instead of helping everyone catch up to speed.

Reactions

Communication is vital to collaboration, and a single thumbs up is often all you really need to do to get the conversation moving. We took a cue from to-the-point communication of social media, where you can express so much with an emoticon. So now, one of seven reactions can be used instead of typing out an entire lengthy reply. They are: thumbs up, thumbs down, smiley face, clapping hands, heart, party popper, and thinking face.

Live Comments

New ActiveCollab is now entirely in real time. Often, more than one user would comment a task at the same time, and they would have to refresh the page to see those other comments.

But now, all the comments – and the user(s) writing them – are visible in real time, meaning that confusion and the busywork of manually refreshing a page to see those new comments are a thing of the past.

Improved Attachment Navigation

A small change, but one that saves a lot of time, especially for designers, or those that have to deal with a lot of attachments. Before, the attachments would have to be navigated individually, one by one – by leaving and reentering the navigation window every time.

Now, all the attachments can be comfortably scrolled through with the left and right arrow keys, or by clicking the left and right icon buttons. The attachments are sorted according to the time they were added, so the newest file will be shown first.

Experience Real Work With New ActiveCollab

Regardless if you’re a project management pro, or are completely new to it, New ActiveCollab is the way to go. With so many new and exciting additions, ActiveCollab is now more powerful and versatile than ever before, and is so much more than just another Project Management Tool – it’s the proper way to do your Real Work.

Try out New ActiveCollab for a completely free 14-day trial to make Real Work happen.

Get ready to create a new list of bookmarks! The new tools featured this month are perfect for saving; some of them you’ll want to come back to over and over, such as a security checklist, cool background maker and a season-specific typeface.

If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured next month, tweet it to @carriecousins to be considered!

DiceBear Avatars

DiceBear Avatars allows you to create placeholder avatars in cool block style. You can create characters or identicons using the free HTTP API.

React Insta Stories

React Insta Stories is a namesake component that allows you to create Instagram or Snapchat stories on the web. Install it with npm and use an array of image URLS. It takes care of duration and the loading indicator.

Sheety

Sheety lets you turn any Google sheet into an API. It’s free and you can use it to power websites, apps or whatever. Plus, anything you change in the originating spreadsheet, updates to the API in real-time.

Minisearch

Minisearch is a tiny but powerful in-memory fulltext search engine for JavaScript. It is respectful of resources, and it can comfortably run both in Node and in the browser. The demo search (below) is fun. I was able to search my name as it pertained to all of the Billboard Hot 100 from 1965 to 2015.

Lobe

Lobe will let your web app learn through a visual interface. It can read handwriting, see emotion and hear music. Join the beta to find out what this deep learning app can do for your projects.

Bubble Toggle

Bubble Toggle is a fun pen by Chris Gannon that features a toggle button with a trendy bubble switch.

Textblock

Textblock is a JavaScript tool that helps you adjust leading and size to create more beautiful responsive typography. It works by calculating a setting based on minimum and maximum values for font size, line height, variable grades and container width.

SocialSizes

SocialSizes solves a common problem: Finding the right template and sizing for social media images. The tool includes templates for Sketch, Adobe XD and Photoshop for common social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitch. It’s one of those tools that just makes life that much easier.

Awesome Podcast

Awesome Podcast might help you find your new favorite show to listen to while working. The list is a compilation of podcasts for software engineers. (And it’s grouped in such a great way to you can find something to listen to about JavaScript or PHP or Ruby or web development or any number of other topics.)

Palette App

Palette App is designed to help you build smooth color schemes, where hues flow from one color to the next. The toggles and tools let you fine tune hue, saturation and gradients. You can bring in color palettes from other places and test them or create a new palette right in the app.

Photo Creator

Photo Creator is a tool that lets you create your own stock photos. (Seriously!) Mix and match models backgrounds and objects to get just the picture you need for projects. Export images (free and paid options) for use online and in print.

Snippet Generator

Snippet Generator lets you create code snippets and copy for quick use. The tool toggles between VSCode, Sublime Text and Atom. It is a tiny React app.

SVRF Developers

SVRF Developers lets users search face filters, 360 videos and 360 photos and is free to use on all types of apps from cameras, to messaging to chat or community. What’s cool about the tool is that it helps your users find more AR and VR web experiences.

Can’t Unsee

Can’t Unsee is a design skills game. Are you brave enough to pick the right iteration designs on the screen?

JournalBook

JournalBook is a private – and offline – personal journal. While the tool is filled with prompts to help you get started, your notes and thoughts are stored on your device. It’s a cool concept if you want to practice a little journaling.

Animated Mesh Lines

Animated Mesh Lines is a cool set of five WebGL demos over on the Codrops Playground. The library helps you understand how to create customer geometry to create an interesting graphic style.

Childhood Flat Icons

Childhood Flat Icons is a fun set of elements that will make you feel like a kid again. The collection includes 100 icons that show the development of a child with representations plus plenty of toys and child-like elements. It comes in AI, SVG and PNG formats.

Security Checklist

Security Checklist is a must-have tool. It is an open source list with everything you need to know about keeping yourself and your identity safe on the internet. How many of these things are you already doing?

BG-Painter

BG-Painter is a fun tool to create animated (or still background images). Just start with one of the preset “paint” options and change colors to fit your project. And everything you create is free to use as you like thanks to creator Frank Hsu.

Static Site Boilerplate

Static Site Boilerplate is a starting point for building modern static websites. It includes all the tech you need, then add your code and deploy your website. It’s that easy (kind of).

UXWing

UXWing might have every icon you’ll ever need. It’s a massive collection of scalable icons for web design and front-end development. Just search for what you need and download.

Startup Illustration Kit

Startup Illustration Kit gives you the tools to tell your company story visually, even when you don’t have a lot of photos or elements to showcase your small business. Use it to create a full set of characters to tell your tale. The kit has 30 illustrations with their own characters.

Lindas

Lindas is a free-for-personal use font with a full set of upper- and lowercase letters and numerals. It has a more masculine script style that’s widely appropriate.

Lorden Holen

Lorden Holen is your simple (and lovely) font for Valentine’s Day. It’s light and connected with just the right feel for love. The glyphs have some great personality as well.

Reno Mono

Reno Mono is a monospaced font with a modern style. What’s especially nice about it is that it has more personality than many other similar options and feels more usable, thanks to a rather modern take on monospacing. Plus, this free font is readable at small sizes.

US Blaak

US Blaak is a fun slab-style font with a great black weight for display. Each letter in this premium serif style has sharp strokes and interesting angles.

Venn

Venn is a beautiful typeface family with 25 styles and five widths and weights. The great variation in this premium family makes is great for almost any use, from body copy to display.

https://www.primarytech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/PrimaryTechnologies-Logo-new1-300x144.png00adminhttps://www.primarytech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/PrimaryTechnologies-Logo-new1-300x144.pngadmin2019-02-19 13:00:072019-02-19 13:00:07What’s New for Designers, February 2019